He was forty-four years old, and twenty-two of those years had been spent in criminal investigations. He was tall, slightly stooped, with the worn face of a man who slept four hours a night. On his desk sat an aluminum mug that read, “World’s Best Dad.”
The coffee in it had gone cold long ago. Walsh hardly noticed anymore. When he was thinking hard, he had a habit of drumming his fingers on the desk.
Now his fingers tapped out a restless rhythm. Two case files lay open in front of him. One was thin, dated 1995.
The other, from the current year, was already much thicker. Walsh opened the first yellowed folder. Victor Sullivan’s missing persons report was dated June 20, 1995.
The worried father stated that his daughter Anna and her husband Daniel had not been heard from in three days. The last time he saw them was June 17, when the couple headed to the cabin. The place belonged to the newlyweds and had been a generous wedding gift from Daniel’s parents.
Sullivan had driven out there himself. The cabin was locked tight, and their car was gone. The neighboring property owners hadn’t seen anything unusual.
The responding deputy filed a standard report. A follow-up check showed the couple’s apartment in the city was empty. All of their personal belongings were still there.
But the owners themselves were nowhere to be found, so they were officially listed as missing. Then, unexpectedly, in early July, Victor received a letter. It was an ordinary handwritten note with a city postmark.
The envelope was addressed to Victor Sullivan. Handwriting analysis confirmed that the writing was Anna’s. The message itself was brief.
She apologized for leaving so suddenly. She wrote that Dan had received a good job offer overseas. Anna mentioned that her father had opposed the marriage, but said they had made up their minds.
She said they were happy and asked him not to look for them. The couple promised they would get in touch once they were settled. Victor immediately turned the letter over to investigators.
An expert again confirmed the handwriting appeared genuine. No obvious signs of forgery were found. Investigators sent an official inquiry to immigration authorities.
They learned that the Reeds really had been preparing documents for travel abroad. More than that, their downtown apartment had been sold through a well-known real estate firm called New Horizon Realty.
The sale price was $80,000. For the mid-1990s, that was serious money. The agency confirmed that the full amount had been paid to the owners in cash.
Everything pointed to a couple preparing to start over in another country. On that basis, the case was officially closed. Victor Sullivan did not push for it to continue.
Maybe he was exhausted. Maybe he chose to believe the letter. Walsh set the old file aside. Then he picked up the new one.
Inside were the fresh scene reports and the photographs. The broken concrete slab. The remains. The chain. And in one separate shot, the watch frozen forever at 2:34….
